Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-11

looked as our fathers, mothers and older
brothers and sisters sat at the communion.
Or, if we sat with them, we pulled az
mothers dress anu said: "Whst does
that mean? Whist is that in the cup2
What is that on the plate?" o, yes; we
remember those sacraLnental days of our
boyhood. We remem Der how much more
tender father was on that day than on any
other day. We remember how mother
stood, and without saying enc word
looked ct Us, and her eyes got fnll of
tears. Oh, the dear old soul! They
have gone, But until the day of our
death we will associate this holy Ordin-
ance with their memory. And when cur
work on earth is done we will Just go up
and sit down beside them in the heavenly
chuI Oh, as we used 10 SIT beside them in
the earthly church, and then We will drink
rev wine in our Fathers kingdom.
Behold the saints, beloved of sod,
Washed &c their robes in Jesus blood;
BRIGHTER than angels. O. they shine,
Their glOies splendid and sublime.
I remark again: This scene is tender
to day because it is q confessional. You
and l remember the time when If a man
had charged us with anything
LIKE IMPERF CTION
OR wrong doing, We would have thrown
ourselves back on our honor, and said:
You don't know who you are talking to.
| shall resent such an Insult TO my honor
ard integrity" We do lot feel that way
to-day. As We gas upon the sacrifice OF
Christ, and think of what we have been
and what we have done, our hearts melt
within US. We see one dying gccuTsed for
our sin, and we hear Him IN his diving words
begging for our service, and yet now lit
tie service we have rendered. OF this
short life we have begrudged God even
4 fragment. Alas, Alas, Some of Us
have lived out most of our days, and yet
we have rendered to God no earnest
service. Sad, that we could have so NAL
treated Him on whom all our hopes de-
pend. On, my brethren and sisters in
Christ, to-day join hands with me in a
confession before Clrist, If there be
any place more humble than another, let
Us take it. It there be any prayer more
impOrtunate than another, let US breathe
iG. If there be any confession more Bit
ter than another, let US now weep it out.
Well might the sun IN darkness hide
And shut his glOrits in,
When Christ, the m shty Maker, died
For man, the creatures sin.
Once more: This IS a tender and ab-
SUI DlDS SSSAC U1SAusG IL ID dILlCipdllht.
My brethren, We are cot always going TO
stay here. This is not our home.
This is
ONLY THE VESTIBULE
of the church in which at last We expect
to enter. After awhile our names Will be
taken off the church books, or there VIII
be mark in the margin to indicate that
We have gone up to bcttec church and
20 higher communion. Our Father IS
nat going to let His children remain in
the dust. The grave is no Place for US to
stay IN. "Che trumpet shall sound and
the dead shall rise" The Lord shall de-
sCend from heaven with shout and the
voice e the archQugel, and shall Use
The white TO0e in which they put Us to
our last slumber here must get winter
On, the reunion Of patEiaTChS, and apes
ties, and prophets, and Of ali our glOriied
kindred, and OF that "gTeat multitude that
no man can number" Our sorrows over.
Our journey crded. It will be as when
kings banquet. And: just as the snow OF
winter melta, and the fields VIII brighten
in the glorious springtime, so it will be
with all these cold sorrows Of earth; theY
shall be melted away at last before the
warm sunshine Of heaven.
While | present these thoughts this
morning does it not seem that
HEAVEN COMES VERY NEAR
to US, as though our friends, whom we
thought great way off, are not in the
distance but close by? You have some
times come down to a river at nightfall,
and you have been surprised how easily
you could hear voices across that river.
You shouted over to the other side of the
river, and they shouted back. 1t is said that
when George Whitetied preached in Third
street, Philadelphia, one evening time, his
voice was heard clear across to the New
Jersey shore. When l was a little while
chaplain in the army, | remember how at
even-tide we could easily hear the voices
Of the pickets across the Potomac, Just
when they were using ordinary
tones. And as we come TO-DAY
9nd stand by the river of
Jord0n that divides US from our friends
who are gone, it seems to me we stand on
one bank and they stand on the other;
voices go and their voices come. Hark
hush! | hear distir city what they say:
"These are they who come out of great
tri5ulatioD, and had their robes washed
and made white IN the JIood of the
Lamb" Sill the voice comes across the
waters, and | hear: awe hunger no
more, We thirst no more, neither shall
the sun light on Us nor arg heat, for the
Lamb which is in the midst Of the throne
leads us to living fountains of water, and
God Wipeth away ell tears from our
eyes,